Regret
by GalwitMystoEggos
Summary: Ecliptor gets tormented with new memories while in the afterlife


_**Can you tell I have a lot of emotions about these two**_

* * *

"I hope you know it's all your fault." The voice was all around him. It sounded vaguely like Darkonda. Nobody was there. Nothing but blackness.

"Who's there?"

"You wanna know what happened to Astronema?"

"Where am I?" Ecliptor asked. "What are you?"

"Your fault. Your fault. Your fault. All your fault. All your fault."

 _"Astronema!"_ Ecliptor spun around at the sound of his own voice.

 _"Ecliptor, it's you," she replied, looking relieved_. What was this? Why didn't he remember? _Fear spread across her face. "What did they do to you?"_

 _"The same thing that will be done to you, my princess," he sneered, walking closer to her. He grabbed her._

 _"Ecliptor, don't!" she shrieked, writhing and kicking and struggling. He held her tightly and dragged her, kicking and screaming, to Darkonda._

"Shall we keep watching?" the voice asked.

"No... no. No," Ecliptor whispered, falling to his knees. "No, no, no. No, this isn't real. I don't remember any of it. It didn't happen."

"Oh, but it did. You hurt her, you're part of the reason she's dead."

"She's not dead," Ecliptor muttered. "She's not dead and you know it."

"Oh, you saw her, did you?"

"Yes," Ecliptor growled. "She visits every day, you liar."

"Tsk, tsk," the voice sighed. "Look." The vision started back up again. _The innocent girl restrained against her will while that loathsome creature worked on modifying her._

 _"I need to go," Ecliptor heard himself say. Darkonda didn't stop him. He felt sick then, and didn't know why. Her screams... Her pleads... Should she mean more to him?_

"How could you do that to your own daughter?" the voice asked.

"I don't know," Ecliptor whispered. "I don't know. I..." He buried his head in his hands.

"You know how much that hurt her?" the voice continued. "How much pain she was in? You dropped her in the hands of your worst enemy. That vile creature, Darkonda? You let him hurt your little girl. How could you do that?"

"Please, stop," Ecliptor pleaded. "Stop."

"You think you deserve that? You deserve mercy? _She_ didn't get any." Karone's screams for help reverberated around him. Her pleading for him to remember her and to help her.

Ecliptor stood back up, searching for the source of the voice. "This isn't real. You're lying. This isn't real."

The voice laughed mockingly. "It is, oh, it is."

"Karone, I'm so sorry." Ecliptor looked around helplessly, trying to find a way out.

"Sorry? That's all you've got?" the voice mocked. The scene shifted to the deathly silence in the Dark Fortress, and the sudden shift in Red Ranger's tone.

 _Something terrible happened. Something that gave him that last surge of energy to pry open the door, a ripple of electricity coursing through him. A brief glitch that saw Karone, his daughter, lifeless on the ground. She wouldn't wake up._

"So what made you decide to stop protecting her?" the voice wondered.

"I didn't... it wasn't..." Everything around him was thickly quiet. "She didn't die. She's alive and you know she is."

"Maybe," the voice responded. "But she was still betrayed by the one closest to her."

"But Darkonda—" Ecliptor started.

"No, you could have fought him. You could have fought the modifications, you know. Did you even try?"

Ecliptor didn't remember. But of course he would have. Wouldn't he? "I—"

"You didn't, did you?"

"I don't remember," Ecliptor replied. "What do you want from me?"

Laughter swirled around Ecliptor. "This, this is what I want."

Ecliptor growled. "Who are you? What are you?"

"You think you deserve to just hear Karone talk to you? After all you've done in your existence, you think that's all the afterlife has in store for you? After everyone you've killed? After all the battles you've been in? After what you did to your own child? You think you deserve nothing but happiness?"

"No," Ecliptor whispered, his voice almost shaking. "I want you to leave me alone."

"And Karone wanted you to protect her. How well did that go? You think you're some great, loyal hero?"

Ecliptor again saw her lifeless body, covered in cold metal he let get embedded into her. "I would give anything to save her. Even my life. And I did," he sighed. "At least, I tried..."

"You're going to try to make it up to her, but you can't. You're stuck here. Forever. Nothing but a memory, now."

"Leave me. Now," Ecliptor ordered. "You've said enough. Leave me. Please."

And the air was light again. Ecliptor looked around; he was alone.

He sat back down, trying to rid his mind of his lost memories. Karone wasn't dead. She was living the life she was meant to live, and she told him about it every day.

The memory of him dragging her away to Darkonda became the memories of carrying an exhausted little girl to bed countless times after she fell asleep on him countless times.

The memory of her crying out to him, pleading him to help her and remember her became the memories of many disgruntled yells for him to help with her schoolwork or training.

And the memory of her lifeless body on the floor of the Dark Fortress became the memory of the day Karone told him she was alive.

That still didn't negate the fact of what he did. He had no way of telling her. He had no way of apologizing. Apologies would do nothing. But he _wanted_ to do something. He had no way of responding to her.

He lied to her about her family and he never had a chance to make it right. He threw her to Darkonda and caused her to die, and he could do nothing about it.

 _If I could have had just one more hour._


End file.
